Despite Travelers' Suspicions,
Few Airlines Pad Their Schedules

Do airlines pad their schedules with extra time just to score well in on-time rankings? It's one of the most common suspicions of frequent travelers, and whenever you write about on-time rankings, as I did last week, you hear it raised by readers and editors alike.

Why do they schedule two hours to fly from Chicago to Newark, N.J., when its only 623 nautical miles and takes less and an hour and a half in the air? Why do flights to Dallas and Denver take longer than they used to? It can't take longer to fly from Phoenix to Los...